“The story of Job confronts us with the question “Why do good people suffer?” And the story offers us insight into right and wrong ways to pursue the answer to this question. The suffering of Job points us forward to the ultimate answer to the problem of evil—the redemptive suffering of Jesus Christ and the promise of a world made new. And as Jesus’ followers, we seek to alleviate suffering as we walk alongside others.” – The Gospel Project

Theological Theme

God- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, does not give us the answer to why we go through suffering, but He does give us Himself.

Christ Connection

In his time of suffering, Job yearned for a mediator—someone to stand between him and God. Jesus is the mediator who suffered, even though He had never sinned, in order to pay the price for human sin and to put an end to suffering on earth.

Missional Application

God, through His Holy Spirit, calls us to comfort people going through a time of suffering, not by answering every question but by assuring them of God’s great love.

“Jesus does not give recipes that show the way to God as other teachers of religion do. He is Himself the way” ― Karl Barth

“Near the end of Solomon’s reign, he put foolishness on display. Solomon’s story is a reminder that all of us are capable of derailing our walk with God by making foolish choices. It is also a reminder our only hope is in the true King whose wisdom and righteousness are perfect—Jesus Christ. As believers, we repent of our foolishness, rely on God for wisdom and salvation, and then call others to trust in Him.” -The Gospel Project

Theological Theme

Foolishness is the failure to give God- Father, Son and Holy Spirit, glory in every area of life.

Christ Connection

Solomon was a king whose reign was marked by prosperity and peace. Unfortunately, at the end of his reign, Solomon’s sinful compromise led to the division of the kingdom. During His earthly ministry, Jesus spoke of Himself when He claimed “something greater than Solomon is here” (Luke 11:31). Whereas sinful choices divided Solomon’s kingdom, Christ’s righteous submission to God established a new unity for God’s people.

Missional Application

God, through His Holy Spirit, calls us to proclaim the foolishness of relying on our own wisdom for salvation and to lift up Jesus as the only hope.

“As Christians, we pledge allegiance to Jesus as King. We believe that Jesus, the Messiah of Israel who was crucified for our sins, has been raised from the dead and is now Lord of the universe. This means that we are to put our trust in his sacrifice and live submissively under his lordship.” –Trevin Wax

“Therefore let us repent and pass from ignorance to knowledge, from foolishness to wisdom, from licentiousness to self-control, from injustice to righteousness, from godlessness to God.”—Clement of Alexandria

“Solomon built a temple for the Lord, and that temple bore God’s name, manifested God’s presence, and represented God’s glory to the world. As Christians, we belong to the church, described by the apostles as “the temple of God.” In the Old Testament, the temple referred to a place. In the New Testament, the temple refers to a people. We are being built together as God’s residence—a beacon of light and hope to the world.”- The Gospel Project

Theological Theme:

Because of the Holy Spirit’s presence, God’s people are the temple of God- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit today, the people who bear His name and join His mission.

Christ Connection:

The temple was to be a place where the name of God would be upheld and the presence of God would be experienced so that the nations would know that the Lord is God. Jesus spoke of Himself as God’s temple, and in His life, death, and resurrection, He upheld God’s name, embodied God’s presence, and extended God’s mission.

Missional Application:

God through His Holy Spirit, calls us to be devoted to Him in obedience so that the original purpose of the temple can be fulfilled—the people of the earth will know our God is King.

“The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.”, – C.S. Lewis.

Because God has said “YES, humanity, you will live!”, then he must necessarily say “NO!” to sin and everything which destroys life!

“God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is so for us that He has accomplished a HUGE NO on our behalf but it is only a NO that serves His YES!” “How will YOU respond to your resurrection in Jesus Christ?” – TJBrassell

“God is the ‘Yes’ in our ‘No’ and the ‘No’ in our ‘Yes’, the First and the Last…” – Karl Barth

“Solomon prayed for wisdom, and God granted him incredible blessings in response. We see how he requested God’s wisdom, how he reigned in wisdom, and the blessings that resulted from his wisdom. We also see how desperately God’s people today need the wisdom and insight that only comes from walking with God.” – The Gospel Project

Theological Theme:

God- Father, Son and Spirit’s promise to make His people a light to the nations began to come true during the reign of Solomon, a king whose wisdom came from God.

Christ Connection:

Solomon reigned with great wisdom and insight, and he foreshadows the coming of a greater king— Jesus, in whom is hidden “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3).

Missional Application:

God, through His Holy Spirit, calls us to depend on Him for wisdom from above and to live wisely before others as a testimony to our all-wise God.

“Wisdom should not be equated with intellectual giftedness or philosophical brilliance. Wisdom expresses itself in the way one lives. Human beings do not have the capacity to acquire wisdom on their own, for that would require ascending to heaven, and thus those who are wise put their trust in the words revealed by God.” –Tom Schreiner

“King David fell into sin and experienced all of its ugly consequences. In David, we see sin’s capacity to enslave us and to motivate us to cover it up. But we also see the possibility of renewal through confession. As believers, we must see all of our sin as an offense toward God and rely on the forgiveness available to us through the sacrifice of the Father’’s Son in order to be restored.” – The Gospel Project

Theological Theme

All sin is ultimately directed toward God- Father, Son, and Spirit.

Christ Connection

Even David, the greatest of Israel’s kings and a man after God’s own heart, was a sinner in need of redemption. In the story of David, we recognize that all of us need forgiveness through the sacrifice of the perfect King, Jesus Christ, who would take upon Himself the punishment our sins deserve.

Missional Application

God, through the Holy Spirit, calls us to be transparent about our sin and to live in repentance so that others will know there is hope for forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

“God’s gift is offered to all in order to be received by all. It is received by having faith in what God in Christ through the Holy Spirit has done for us. It is by faith in the grace of God that we begin participating in the relationship Jesus has restored, and start receiving the benefits included in that relationship.” – The God Revealed in Jesus Christ – a Booklet

“God reaffirmed and expanded the covenant promises He made to Abraham—this time to King David. God promised to give David rest from his enemies and to build an eternal house through one of David’s descendants. In response to God’s unfailing promises, David expressed gratitude and humility, and this is the appropriate response for all believers in light of God’s faithfulness’ – The Gospel Project

Theological Theme:
The gracious promises of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are meant to humble us and stir up gratitude in our hearts.

“God does not give us everything we want, but he does fulfill His promises, leading us along the best and straightest paths to Himself.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Christ Connection
God promised David that future kings of Israel would come from his family and that his kingdom would last forever. God kept this promise by sending Jesus as one of David’s descendants. All of history is driving toward the day when Jesus, the Son of David, will be recognized as the King whose kingdom is everlasting.

Missional Application:
God calls us to offer ourselves fully to Him so that the mercy and grace we’ve experienced through His Holy Spirit will go out to others.

“God’s promises are the peculiar treasure of believers: the substance of faith’s heritage lies in them. All the promises of our covenant God are ours to have and to hold as our personal possession. By faith, we receive and embrace them, and they constitute our true riches.” – Charles Spurgeon

“One of the greatest examples of friendship in the Bible is in the relationship between David and Jonathan. Jonathan shows us what it means to be a true friend by being utterly committed to David’s well-being, by risking his own welfare for the sake of David, and by strengthening him in his faith. The example of Jonathan points forward to the truest and best friend of all—Jesus Christ Himself, who redefines friendship and transforms us into the kind of people who can be true friends to our brothers and sisters in Christ.” – the Gospel Project

Christ Connection
The story of David and Jonathan gives us an example of true friendship and offers us a picture of God’s covenantal love for people. Because of Jesus’ commitment to us, His sacrificial love, and His strengthening grace, we are called the “friends of God.”

Missional Application
God calls us to befriend others in the way He has befriended us: by committing to one another, sacrificing for one another, and strengthening one another through the power of the cross – by participating, literally, with Jesus through the Holy Spirit.

““I have called you friends.”John 15:15 – It is a friendship based on the new life created in us which has no affinity with our old lifebut only with the life of God. It is unutterably humble, unsulliedly pure, and absolutely devoted to God.” – WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS – My Utmost For His Highest

“In the story of David, we see that God does not judge people based on worldly expectations. David’s battle against Goliath is an example of a king’s trust in the Lord’s deliverance and of God’s faithfulness to accomplish a decisive victory for His people. God’s people needed a warrior-king to defeat the enemy on their behalf, and in the story of David, we see glimpses of the promised king we need, as well as an example of obeying God from a heart on fire for Him.” –the Gospel Project

Theological Theme: God – Father, Son and Spirit’s people need a warrior-king who will defeat the enemy on their behalf.

Christ Connection: In David, we see a picture of courageous faith in God’s power. We also catch a glimpse of the bigger story of the Bible and the coming King- Jesus Christ – whom no one would have expected or picked to win the victory, but through His death and resurrection, He is mighty to save.

Missional Application: As God’s people who have been forgiven through the power of the cross and by the Holy Spirit, we don’t pursue the nations in judgment but with the message of grace, that all may hear the good news and be swept up into the glorious love and grace of God.

“What is required—what Jesus Christ continually requires—are rocks like this who are certainly not perfectly untainted people, who are perhaps seriously objectionable in many ways and will have much to answer for, but are nevertheless ready to do something quite specific, to render obedience to a specific word by undertaking a specific service. In the church of Jesus Christ, there is not only waiting, there must also be those individuals who are continually hastening, watching, rising where they are called to, with all the perils that entails. The church could not do without them, and the church cannot do without them today either. And now in this hour, the text puts this question to each and every one of us: And you, are you not also called to obey in a specific way? To be sure, we must examine ourselves to see whether we are ready to obey the orders of Jesus Christ, or whether the appeal we are now hearing might not come from some chimera within our hearts. But equally, let us examine ourselves to see whether it is not the result of our cowardice and unbelief if we not assume this specific task, this specific act of obedience to which we are summoned! (55)” – Karl Barth– Reading Karl Barth: The “Bremen” Sermon

Theological Theme: God- Father, Son, and Spirit, requires total obedience to all of His commands. “In King Saul’s story, we see the failure to obey God completely leads us to rationalize and justify our obedience, a sin that is compounded by the desire for human approval rather than divine grace. Halfhearted obedience is just another form of disobedience, and so, God-Father, Son and Spirit calls us to renounce our hypocritical displays of righteousness and to submit fully to his purpose and plan.” The Gospel Project

Christ Connection: Saul’s kingship could not last because he rejected God’s word. Israel needed a lasting kingdom ruled by Someone who would obey God fully. Through the perfect obedience of Jesus, God would establish His rule over His humanity forever. “Jesus is standing in for you representing you as one before God even when you’re not obeying. One who is making a great and awesome decision for God even when you are not making a great and awesome decision for God”…..”In light of who Jesus is – The Vicarious Man – and who we are in Him, we can see that the downfall of man (and sometimes YOUR downfall in life) is your failure to obey God COMPLETELY!” TJBrassell

Missional Application: God the Holy Spirit calls and empowers us to renounce our hypocritical displays of righteousness and to submit fully to His purpose and plan in Jesus so that the world will see God’s redemption. “The gracious call of Jesus now becomes a stern command: Do this! Give up that! Leave the ship and come to me! When a man says he cannot obey the call of Jesus because he believes, or because he does not believe, Jesus says: “First obey, perform the external work, renounce your attachments, give up the obstacles which separate you from the will of God. Do not say you have not got faith. You will not have it so long as you persist in disobedience and refuse to take the first step. Neither must you say that you have faith, and therefore there is no need for you to take the first step. You have not got faith so long as and because you will not take the first step but become hardened in your unbelief under the guise of humble faith.” It is…malicious…to argue like this, a sure sign of lack of faith, which leads in its turn to a lack of obedience. This is the disobedience of the “believers”; when they are asked to obey, they simply confess their unbelief and leave it at that (Mark 9.24). You are trifling with the subject. If you believe, take the first step, it leads to Jesus Christ. If you don’t believe, take the first step all the same, for you are bidden to take it. No one wants to know about your faith or unbelief, your orders are to perform the act of obedience on the spot. Then you will find yourself in the situation where faith becomes possible and where faith exists in the true sense of the word.” –Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, 73-74